Edwin d



-UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

" EDWIN D. VVASSELL, OF PITTSBUBG, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO ANN ISABELLA WASSELL, OF SAME PLACE.

METHOD OF ELIMINATING'CARBON FROM STEEL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 361,795, dated April 26, 1887.

Application tiled September 20,1886. Serial No. 214,086. (No specimens.)

the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention relates to the treatment of steel in rails, bars, fagots, or ingots, and has for its objectthe production of steel of any point in carbon desire-d, and the welding of steel bars or miscellaneous scraps of steel that r are-capable of being piled or put in the form of fagots.

The invention will be hereinafter described,

and particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the manufacture of steel by the various processes known to the art it has been demonstrated that the metal cannot be held in liquid form below a given point in carbon, for the reason that the metal will congeal or form into a solid mass of malleable iron or soft steel, 2 5 which cannot be run out of the furnace, and can only be removed at great loss of time and labor and consequent heavy expense. The prevailing practices of reducing the point in carbon in steel are known as the open-hearth 3o process and the Bessemer process, and in them the point in carbon cannot be reduced below a given point, varying from eight (8) to fifteen (15) points. In practicing my invention I have discov- 3 5 cred that by working a charge of steel ingots after they have been reduced as low in carbon as it is possible by the open-hearth or Bessemer processes the carbon can be reduced to a much lower-point. I have also discovered 40 that old steel scraps of any kind or of any point in carbon can be treated by my process, and' the scraps will absorb a sufficient amount of the slag .to make a perfect and homogeneous weld under pressure.

My process applies more particularly to the art of reworking old steel rails or other steel scraps, but is not limited thereto, as iron rails, bars, blooms, piles, or fagots may be subjected to the same process for heating and welding purposes.

In practicing my'invention, old steel rails are out into suitable lengths, put into a furnace, and heated to the proper temperature, when they are taken from the furnace and rolled into suitable bars. The bars are then out into suitable lengths and piled one on top of another, and are then charged into a suitable furnace containing a sufficient depth of molten slag to allow the piles of steel bars to be completely immersed or buried in the slag. The piles are kept in the molten slag and subjected to the heat and the chemical action of the slag any desired length of time necessary for the bars of steel composing the pile to absorb the necessary amount of slag to make a perfect homogeneous weld between each layer of the bars in the pile, and also to reduce the carbon to any point desired. The

piles are taken from the furnace and rolled into bars, sheets, or other forms, as may be desired. While the pile is in the molten-slag bath the bars are completely surrounded or covered by the slag and the atmosphere excluded from. them, thus securing a heat due to the heat of the molten slag and'oxidation of the metal completely prevented. Sections of rails may be thus treated and the point in carbon reduced before they are rolled out into bars, and the piles, bars, or sections of rails may first be heated in an ordinary furnace to about a welding heat and then be subjectcd to the molten slag; or sections of iron rails, bars, blooms, or fagots maybe treated in like manner for forming a homogeneous weld.

The slag bath is prepared by placing a sufficient quantity in a furnace of suitable construction and heated to a degree to liquefy the slag and cause it to boil, or merely sufficieut to liquefy the slag, as may be desired. The temperature of the slag bath may be varied to correspond with different grades of, steel being worked and the amount of carbon to be reduced. In treating steel ingots they are simply put into the slag bath at a high or low degree of temperature, as may be desired, and kept in the slag properly covered until the carbon has been reduced to the point desired.

I have discovered,in the operation of my invention, that a body of steel, either in the form of a pile, fagot, or ingot, which has been subjected to the action of the molten slag bat heated to the boiling-point for a period of twenty-two (22) minutes, has been reduced in carbon twelve (12) points or twelve one hundredths of one per cent. Steel contaming sixty-five (65) points in carbon has been subjected to the slag bath and reduced to fifty-th me (53) points intwenty-two (22) minutes. Old steel rails reduced into bars containing carbon at about forty-five (45) points have been subjected to the slag bath and re duced in carbon to twentypoints in thirty-six (36) minutes. The point in carbon will be'further reduced in proportion' jtti-tthe increased length of time the steel is subjected to the action of the slag bath, and may be lowered to suit the purposes for which the steel is to be used.

' Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is 1. The process herein described for treating steel to reduce the point in carbon,which consists in subjecting it to the action of molten,

slag while immersed or buried stautially as described.

2. The process herein described for treating wrought metals to form a homogeneous weld, which consists in subjecting a pile, fagot, bloom, or ingot of metal to the action of molten slag while immersed or buried therein, substantially as described.

3. The process herein described for treating steel to reduce the point in carbon and form a homogeneous weld, which consists in subjecting apile of bars or plates, a fagot, or ingot to the action of molten slag while immersed therein, substantially as described.

therein, subor sections of rails to the action of molten slag and then reducing the rail to bars, substantially as described. 5. The process herein described for treating steel to reduce the point in carbon,which consists inheating a body of steel in an ordinary furnme and then subjecting it to the action of molten slag while immersed or buried t 5 therein, substantially as described.

6. The process herein described for treating wrought metals to form a homogeneous weld,

which consists in heating a pile, bloom, or fagotin an ordinary furnace and then subjecting it to the action of molten slag while immersed orburied therein, substantially as described.

7. The process herein described for treating steel to reduce the pointin carbon, whichconsists in heating slag to a state of liquefaction and then immersing or burying the steel in said slag and subjecting it to the action of the slag until the point in carbon has been re duced to any desired degree, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 4th day of August, A. D. 1886. 6 5

I]. D. wAssELL. 

